My response to my love of nature, my garden and local walks with my dogs.

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Recently I decided to do a series of very quick sketches inspired by my local walks with the dogs. Next I thought about translating a serene feeling I always have when walking at that location, the trees dangling branches in the stream and the winter light. The result was my oil painting above, painted in 3 hours. I hope you enjoy looking at it and the sketches.

The light wasn’t great when I photographed the early stages of my watercolour painting of a hedgehog. I will build many transparent colour layers to create this little hog. I’ll aim to capture an essence of his character. I’m waiting for the paint to dry before I carry on.

I’ll update you soon with how my little hog painting is coming on!

It is a joy to be making puddles of colour again, adding water and letting my brush drop colour onto the paper.

It’s been a very strange year of many ups and downs and I apologise to everyone who follows me, likes my blog and enjoys reading my posts. I promise to make 2019 the year when I pen my poetry and get painting again. After one of our beloved Border collies died suddenly last year, the arrival of our Slate merle pup in early spring and Skye, our surviving blue merle having a Stroke, I wondered whether life would ever become calm again.

However, Storm is a year old now, pictured above, and has a lovely nature; she gets on really well with Skye and has helped Skye get over her Stroke by assisting with her physio!

We’ve had lovely holidays in North Norfolk walking along the Coastal path, across the salt marshes and on Holkham beach and I have enjoyed a few hours here and there to paint.

I hope you like my photos and my watercolour painting of the cheeky robin who visits my bird table every morning. I have designed a Christmas card, so he can be enjoyed by friends and family.

I wish you all a warm, peaceful and jolly Christmas and the best of luck for 2019!

Autumnal breezes, ripped this beautiful dahlia from its stem. I rescued it and watched it, as with lots of water and paint, I created an image which will last…I want to say forever. As sunshine warmed us all, tiny golden sparkles glowed on its shiny petals. I love dahlias.

I love growing squash, but this year, I reckon because of the drought, the harvest was disappointing. The squash were much smaller. However they have made a very good Still Life subject. I feel inspired by their textures, colours and those fabulous stripey designs. I actually like the dried slightly mouldy wizened stem!

My painting is work in progress, in oil on canvas gesso board. The oil is quite damp so I’ve got time to think about any changes I want to make.

The weather is warm here, the light fabulous for showcasing autumnal colours everywhere in nature. I’ll miss the swallows though!

Yesterday was a great Art for the soul day, painting almost non stop for 3 hours in a lovely Studio gallery location in the buzzing Hertfordshire market town of Hitchin. I have never painted in Oils before and found them quite a challenge but I will get mine out at home now because they are such a tactile, vibrant medium. I love them. I hope you enjoy my painting. I tried to capture the light and different colours in a photo of the ‘black tulip.

It has been a wet, autumnal day. I set off this morning with my dogs through a local woodland. It was dark and dripping raindrops which splattered on the leaf mold and moss filled floor. I could see beauty in tiny pools of water collected in large leaves which reflected the tree canopy and the charcoal sky: the woodland creaked and spoke to me of the year so far. The ancient trees, bark toughened, branches gnarled, split and hanging low over the path. The people I met were enjoying their rainy walks too, we were all out there enjoying the elements, exploring our day.

Later this afternoon, I left my husband decorating and headed down the garden to my Studio. I knew I would paint one of the old trees I’d seen and love in all weathers. I’m not sure if it’s finished yet. Tomorrow I will see my watercolour in the morning light! The watercolour sketch on the right I did a while ago. Another oak tree I see regularly and enjoy its presence.

The garden is surprising me every day with new blooms. Time for recording their wonderful shapes and colours. Here are a couple of Watercolour sketches I did yesterday and today. The experience was very relaxing and my paint dried very quickly in the heat!

Both unfinished but hopefully capturing the essence of our colourful garden!

We’ve been having building work done at home which although exciting , I find it turns my usually fairly calm life into chaos.

So, as I haven’t been able to hide away creating in my Studio for a while, yesterday I went to another Artist’s Studio which was a beautiful tranquil space to learn about Glass fused designs.

At first I felt scared even cutting glass let alone grinding glass into shapes, however, after a while I found I really enjoyed creating my flower, dahlia design out of coloured glass offcuts. My flower will be fused in the kiln and next week I’ll pick it up. I Can’t wait to see the result! It was lovely to be creative without too many distractions.

Cople churchyard is beautiful at the moment with a smattering of celedines, voilets and tiny Blue star like flowers. However it is solitary huddles of snowdrops which inspire me the most because they appear in harsh weather and bring us hope of spring. We are about to get snow here in the UK at the weekend, I have to say it is very pretty but we need the warmth of the sunshine. For those of you deep in a cold winter, I hope you’re keeping cosy.

The snowdrop scribble was inspired by my walk in the churchyard, hopefully I’ll be able to get in the Studio soon to have a play with designs, do a watercolour or maybe a screenprint.

My creative time is very precious because I have an elderly dog recovering from a Stroke and a puppy who is delightful and full of fun, requiring lots of attention, training and walks. Life is full on!